Balance Rock puts Berkshires on the map

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When I first moved to Pittsfield, about 10 years ago, I dug out a map, the kind they used to give away at the gas stations for free (in fact, I think this map was relic of those days). The simple road map didn't have much detail on it, just the main streets, the airport, state forests — and a place called "Balanced Rock." Balance (or Balanced) Rock was basically the only Pittsfield attraction the mapmaker thought worth spending ink on. When I asked about it, people told me that Balance Rock was famous, a geological curiosity and fodder for authors and poets. People who grew up in the Berkshires told me about family walks and picnics at Balance Rock. Eventually, I visited The Rock myself. Some friends and I parked just off the street, and trudged a little road, sometimes paved sometimes not, until we saw a graffiti-covered boulder in a little clearing. It really is a big rock that is balanced, stuck really, on a smaller rock. It looks like anyone could lean on it, or bump it, and tip it over (kind of like Clark Griswold at Stonehenge in one of those "Vacation" movies). Rock on You can climb on the rock and sit. Or, you can crawl under it, and wonder if this 165-ton hunk of limestone will choose this particular moment to become unbalanced. In his most bizarre novel, Herman Melville spends a lot of time, nearly a whole chapter, on Balance Rock (he was living in Pittsfield at the time he wrote Pierre). In the book, Pierre does crawl under the rock and the experience inspires some intense metaphysical wanderings. The rock, in fact, plays a pivotal (pun intended, I admit), role for Pierre, who is never quite the same after discovering his "Memnon Stone." "It was shaped something like a lengthened egg, but flattened more; and at the ends, pointed more; and yet not pointed, but irregularly wedge-shaped...[balanced on] that one obscure and minute point of contact...it was a breathless thing to see...It might well have been the wonder of the whole country around." I wish I could say that I shared Pierre's entrancement during my visit, but I didn't. I thought it was kind of interesting, but kind of pedestrian. A nice rock in a clearing, with a little trash can next to it. Oh yeah, with the inescapable graffiti. Bring your own spray can I'll never understand graffiti. What are they thinking? "I think I'll deface someone else's property or a natural landmark with paint. Yeah, that would be cool. But I can't tell anyone I did it, unless I put my super-secret tag, which only other vandals will be able to understand." The weirdest part of graffiti is that it always seems illegible. I've never been able to read any of it, except for a few nonsense phrases or swears. If you're going to write on a rock, why not write something worth reading? But they don't. I guess the bottom line is that they have nothing to say. Graffiti is nothing new, though. When Melville's Pierre took a close look at the Rock, he found that someone, possibly Solomon himself, had already carved his initials into it, ruining Pierre's illusion that he had discovered the thing. I visited the Rock again last week, this time after hiking in the nearby Pittsfield State Forest and at Balance Rock State Park itself. The Rock seems to be very popular with families. I went on a weekday evening and I saw bicyclers and RV and some motorcycle tourists at the site. There are some nice walking trails around the rock, including loop around the Rock itself. Since the Rock abuts Pittsfield State Forest, you can spend a whole day hiking in the area and sit in the shade of Balance Rock as a rest stop, which is what I did recently. I think this is a better choice than simply visiting the Rock. After a long afternoon of walking in the forest, the geological wonder has more impact, and is more likely to inspire, like Pierre, some metaphysical wanderings. As for me, I simply enjoyed the rest, enjoyed the creepy feeling of sitting under the rock and thought about how pathetic graffiti taggers are. Waxing metaphysical just gives me a headache.
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MCLA Graduates Told to Make the World Worthy of Them

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff

Keynote speaker Michael Bobbitt was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts. He told the graduates to make the world worthy of them. See more photos here.  
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Amsler Campus Center gym erupted in cheers on Saturday as 193 members of class of 2026 turned their tassels.
 
The graduates of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' 127th commencement were sent off with the charge of "don't stop now" to make the world a better place.  
 
You are Trailblazers, keynote speaker Michael Bobbitt reminded them, and a "trailblazer is not simply someone who walks a path. A trailblazer makes one, but blazing a trail does not happen alone. Every trailblazer is carrying tools made by somebody else. Every trailblazer is guided by stars they did not create. Every trailblazer stands on grounds shaped by ancestors, teachers, workers, neighbors, friends, and strangers."
 
Trailblazing takes communal courage, he said, and they needed to love people, build with people, argue with people, and find the people who make them braver and kinder at the same time.
 
"The future will not be saved by isolated geniuses, it will be saved by networks of people willing to practice courage together. The future belongs not to the loudest, not to the richest, not to the most certain, but to the most adaptive, the most creative, the most courageous, the most willing to learn."
 
Bobbitt was recently named CEO of Opera American after nearly five years leading the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He stressed the importance of art to the graduates, and noted that opera is not the only art form facing challenges in this world. 
 
"Every field is asking, who are we for now? What do we, what value do we create?" he said. "What do we stop pretending is fine. This is not just an arts question, that is a healthcare question, a climate question, a technology question, a community question, a higher education question, a democracy question, a life question. ...
 
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